Turn Signals
by oneluckieduck
Summary: Episode 4.11 spoilers! Donna and the Doctor are separated on the planet of Xiang Xien Shang Shen , leaving the Doctor to his own thoghts in the alternate universes of his mind. First fanfic ever! Please review.
1. Chapter 1: Days Like These

**My first fanfic (or story in general, for that matter) ever!**

**It basically follows the Doctor arround Xiang Xien (aka Shang Shen) while Donna is off creating an alternate universe-my feeble attempt at getting inside the Doctor's head ;)**

**Please enjoy, REVIEW, and be patient while I slowly turn out the rest of the chapers! **

* * *

**Turn Signals**

Chapter 1: Days Like These

_Ah! These were the days that made my burden worth it! Every day, every planet, every time different, with different moons orbiting up above, different suns in the sky, and different grounds beneath. No Daleks or Cybermen or being slapped around by your mate's mad mother (what was with mums anyways?)_

No battles or diplomacy today. Today he Donna were just going to live life, getting their first taste of normalcy in a what had seemed like forever, spending the perfectly normal day as normal tourists on the perfectly normal planet of-

"Right, here we are then-Xiang Xien!" the Doctor exclaimed as he brought the Tardis to a stop. "Colonized by Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea after the Oriental Trade Schism of 3672, occupied briefly by the Dravidians after the Great Carrionite scourge early 42nd century, and now, you marvellous humans, you habituate the most successful planet in the history of the Andromeda Trade Confederation!" he declared, running his hand casually through his hair as he held the door open for Donna, taking in this brave new world. "And if I'm not mistaken, it's the mid-47th century, the Age of Peace here in the Maffei Galaxy, year of the Chelonian, and ooh, would you look at that, the-"

"Year Xiang Xien hosts the Intergalactic Games," his companion and friend said as she peered at a banner hanging across the alley.

_Brilliant she is, that Donna Noble. Never failed to miss anything, even the points that I'd rather her not notice._

"Yep," he muttered as he pulled out his "brainy specs", "… and it looks like we're just going to miss the opening ceremonies by 12 days. It's a shame too-" putting his glasses back up, "first time the games are open to all species. Gave us some really good limball matches between Grolon and Stiora and a legendary telejet race to Clom and back. Hmph," He chuckled as he shot Donna a sideways glance, "Probably the only thing more fantastic than the games were the after-parties.'

"Well, if their idea of a good time is anything like Midnight's…" Donna darkly murmured, and then jokingly chuckled, "or their food is anything like that Foamasi barbecue"

"Nah, much worse," the Doctor winked, relieved not to mention his trip to midnight again. _It still hurts to remember how low, how cruel, the human race could go. At least on this planet, life is relatively normal and there were plenty of distractions.._

"Oh, and speaking of food, Donna come here!"

"What's that?"

"Here, try this-" The Doctor said as he handed Donna what appeared to be a shish kebob of some sorts.

"Mmm, it's brilliant. Sor' of fi-"

"Fishy? Yeah," as the duo continued to saunter down the crooked, crowded, lively alleyways. "Szechuan Macra, with Raagan chili sauce, coconut essence, nalgon oil, and… I think a hint of banana...'

"Mmmm, It's beautiful. It's days like this that make me want to do this forever."

"Yeah… me too…"

He could never pinpoint what it was that brought her back into his mind. Was it the fact that a banana was the one piece of fruit not in the bathrobe the first day these eyes had laid eyes on her?

"You alright?"

Or was it the talk of forever- and the thought of an eternity without her?

"Yeah, I'm fine."

_At least Donna understands the loss of someone you loved, and, more importantly, knows how you have to deal with it- alone, but not without your mates who support you._

"Alright, well, I'm off to do some shoppin' for Gramps. You know him and aliens…" Donna told him as she nodded towards a street adorned with banners in the most brilliant golds, reds, and oranges human eyes had ever seen. "You want anything?"

"Nah, you wouldn't want me to come alone- might annoy you with my dullness."

" Doctor, look here, at my face. Now, do I look bothered by it?"

He glanced into her green eyes. The only eyes that somewhat understood him now."No," he grinned, "but seriously, go on without me."

"'Kay then. I'll meet up with you in a few. Won't be long"

"'Kay."

Donna really has been good for me-- the Doctor thought to himself as he strolled down the alley, hands in pockets. -- After all that happened… loosing them… loosing her… hurting Martha… It's nice to have a proper mate. –

He raised his gaze up from his feet and looked at the life, the ever-adapting, ever-evolving human life around him- the children weaving in and out of knock-off helmet vendors and antique clothing merchants. The streetside cooks calling out for business, and the artists painting murals of dragons on the brick walls, and the tapestry hangers putting up banners in preparation for the big day and he kept wondering- _Why is it that days like these always remind me of her?_


	2. Chapter 2: Passing Time

Chapter 2: Passing Time

The Doctor ambled down the crowded streets pondering why she was on his mind so much today. Then, as he looked up at the pennant swinging overhead, it made sense: Of course! scarlet and orange. The colours of the Pyrdonian chapter of the Time Academy.

* * *

They had met as students at the Time Academy; she was the daughter of a cardinal, he the son of an outsider and a human. Together with their fellow partners in crime, his cousin, The Master, Xenorid, fellow Outsider Gita, and Shuei Ching, The Doctor and Larna kept the cardinals occupied during their eight year apprenticeship- closing the rift in the Medusa Cascade, "intervening" in matters that did not concern Gallifrey, creating and then destroying paradoxes before the Council discovered them. They toured the universe carefree and blasé to events around them, caring only to visit as many planets as possible and "help" the species they met along the way.

It was not only in space-time that rifts existed, though. Tears appeared in their friendship as the group began to unravel. After Xenorid bid them adieu on the small planet of Poosh, it was only Larna and the Doctor left in what Gita and Larna had come to call the TARDIS, or Time and Relative Dimension in Space.

* * *

The Doctor continued walking down the road. "Ah, yep, that's ginger, fresh ginger, which means- we must be next to… an apothecary!" he exclaimed as he ran into the shop. "Now this, this is superb! - one of the most extensive shops I've ever seen," he cried as he bent down to examine the shelves. "Let's see we've got Turmeric and Rancoss eggs- who'd want those? - and Vurishdu seeds- very useful- and now that's interesting, Krillitane oil, and of course, aspirin" he groaned as he nearly dropped the bottle.

* * *

The choice to extend their stay on Earth was not for luxury or sightseeing purposes, but for necessity. John and Susan, as they were to be called in class, had been visiting 20th century earth to investigate a suspicious roxicolphorene infestation at a local school. However, the day prior to their landing, the Doctor accidentally mistook an aspirin tablet for a seltzer tablet. The resulting acetylsalicylic poisoning aged him well beyond his youthful 150 years, and, though not as life threatening as the accident that lead to Larna's regeneration on Barcelona only months before, the weary traveller still needed to recuperate desperately.

The poison pumped through the Doctor's two hearts for well over six months, and "Susan" continued to faithfully attend school (though she could never resist flaunting her "unearthly" knowledge assist her friend through the final days of his first regeneration cycle and travel with her companion.

Until she met David. He was handsome, bright, charming, and ambitious. There was so much future ahead of this youth from the 22nd century Great Terrestrial Moon Colony, so much ambition. Suddenly, a new world of possibilities to explore came within reach. Just think of the freedom she would have with, in essence, the perfect human companion. The futures she could show him. And the people she could help the societies she could change if she helped David go forth with his plan for a multi-world Time Agency! Just think of it! Starting in the 50th century, right before the rise of the Fifth Great and Bountiful Human Empire! But what about HIM, he was about to undergo the scariest change of his life, he was about to die, and be reborn. She couldn't leave him, not now, not like this, not for a mere mortal...

But he had left her no choice- he left her behind, on David's colony, knowing that regardless of the choice, they would both be missing out on so much life: Larna if she stayed behind, the Doctor if she left.


	3. Chapter 3: Regenerated Love

Chapter 3: Regenerated Love

Centuries of blocking out the memories had dulled the pain, "but," he thought as he sat down on a park bench, "all the time in the universes could never remove her memory." Her presence was simply too strong.

* * *

Over six lifetimes had passed in the last half-millennium. He had battled Daleks, stopped a Sontaran invasion, thwarted the plans of his old friend, the Master, kept the Zygons and Loch Ness Monster from colonizing planet Earth, and interfering in the timeline of the young planet often enough as to have spent a majority of the past 500 years in exile. However, his renegade actions had earned him the respect, in addition to the reprimands, of the High Council, even to the level of being elected President.

It was his first time back on the Shining World of the Seven Systems since his removal from office, yet on that day, the Doctor wished for nothing more than to run from under the burnt-orange planet that he called Home. That day, he stood before the High Council, babbling on about his attempts at bringing the Master back from his refuge on Skaro, his cousin's escape, his own 8th regeneration, and the danger posed from their former compatriot, when the Doctor was, for the first time ever, at a loss for words.

There she was, in the Chancellor's chair- Larna. Her long red hair and heart-shaped face were different from in her previous regeneration. Nevertheless, his hearts skipped a few beats when he realised it was she- and that he was in love. Still, it would never work. She too had torn from the ideals of their youth- to use their position as Time Lords to help lower species, to make them better, to stabilize the temporal flux of the universe and protect those species not able to protect their own future. Instead, Larna had taken her "rightful" place at the head of Time Lord society, cutting her strings with other races in order to play the role of puppet for the pretentious, stagnant Lords of Time. And he, he was the Doctor who helped make everyone else better.

After the Council, the Doctor walked back to the TARDIS, ready to forget the roads his friends had wandered down- The Master and Larna had strayed, Gita was a cardinal at the Academy, and Xenorid, he was somewhere in the Citadel, which, though reassuring that he had not gone astray as his narcissistic cousin had, most likely signified a fate similar to…

"Larna- so your father finally succeeded in bullying you out of association with me- and other worlds, for that matter," the doctor spoke indifferently.

"He wasn't a bad man-"Larna stared at him curiously. "He just thought we should use our position as guardians, not gods."

"He exiled me for stopping the Blathereen. Seriously, if that wasn't being a guardian-..." He shook his head. "And now you're one of them? What happened to the Time Agency?? What happened to your plans and dreams and adventures?"

A small smile passed over her soft lips. "Oh, it's doing brilliantly! One of the largest humanoid academies when I left early 51st century, though, it may be overextending itself… need to go check on it come to think of it…"

"Yeah, you do, he barked coolly. "They're messing with the very fabric of reality, teleporting into I'm surprised don't you and your council stop all their meddling?"

"Well, I'm surprised that you're not a bit more grateful about your treatment today. What a stupid, stupid idea to be attacking the one person who has the power to ground you here indefinitely… especially since she just came here to say thank you?

"What?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

The Doctor spun around and looked at her. She was still smiling that sad smile as she got out her laser pen and pointed it at the phonograph in the corner. A waltz began to play as Larna spoke.

"Thank you, for teaching me to love this universe. For going to the edge and never looking back. For taking a stand for all the creatures, and standing your ground when you know you're right. And, most importantly for loving. … You know that's what intrigued me about starting up the Agency, not David-well in a way, yes- but it was more about teaching him- and through him. all that he came in contact with. Teach him about the universes and times and life out there- I wanted to teach them about what we had all seen, what we had loved, what we had screwed up." She laughed "Funny thing is, I had never thanked my friend who had taught me…"

Larna continued to smile at him, only now, the Doctor began to smile back.

"Will you dance with me?"

They danced in silence around the control room of the TARDIS for what could have been five hours or five minutes, lost in the timelessness of each other's eyes, until at long last, Larna broke the quiet

"It was his thirteenth cycle, and he contracted Marconi's disease, that's why I stopped travelling. I had to come back home and replace him…"

The Doctor stopped swaying to the music and looked into her mist-grey eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he brought his face down towards her hers. "I'm so sorry. I never should have assumed you would do that to…"

As his lips gently brushed against hers, it was like staring into the Untempered Schism all over again. He saw the whole of time and space in a single second. His hearts stopped beating. His breathing halted and his respiratory bypass failed him. Only this time, he didn't want to run away, but rather, stay with her forever. And so he did something he had never done before-

He told her his name.


	4. Chapter 4: Paradise Lost

Chapter 4: Paradise Lost

It was a child's crying that brought the Doctor out of the cloudy daze of his past.

He walked over to the little girl with a rope in her tiny hands, wanting nothing more than to take her pain away from her. "Hello there," he chirped as kneeled to get on eye level with her. "What's wrong?"

"I… l-lost… mmy.. p-pu-ppy," she whimpered.

The Doctor looked into the child's eyes, feeling her pain. He too knew what it was like to lose.

* * *

He had stopped them. The Daleks. Their killing. The rage. The destruction. The re-writing of history. The tearing of the temporal quanta- the wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey stuff of the universe as he used to tell his youngest. He had stopped the war.

As the last of the Time Lords.

* * *

"There, there," he said softly as he hugged the girl, "I know, do you want to go find him with me?"

The child gazed reticently at his alien face, as if she was trying to comprehend why this strange man cared so dearly about a human so little.

"Well, what do you say?" he asked with a smile. Slowly, the girl nodded, as she took the Doctor's hand.

* * *

He made sure that they were safe. Two hundred light years away in a time loop, safe from the reaches of Dalek forces, his children were hidden in the Robanian Nebula… But when time collapses in on itself, nothing is out of its reach…

To go back…to take their places… to see them one last time… would tear the fabric of time into billions of pieces. It would make him insane, kill him, destroy every civilisation in existence.

* * *

Kyung-Chi clung to the edge of his trench coat as they manuvered through the throngs of barterers and merchants. With her free hand, the girl held on to a small paper dragon he had given her as she giggled at the joke he just told her.

The Doctor smiled at the child, taking a brief second to enjoy her pure humanity- the one trait he had come to value above all others in the time since he began his travels all those years ago, before continuing to call out for young Kyung-Chi's "Wooffie!"

* * *

He had closed the rifts, and with them, the Great Untempered Schism. And as the Schism pulled in on itself, it took with it anything tainted with Huon α particles: The Daleks, Davros, Gallifrey itself, the shining suns, the silver trees, the Council, his parents, his cousins, his friends, the children, Larna,… his life. Everything he cared about, leaving only the tempered Huon β heart of his TARDIS, the ship, and himself.

* * *

Suddenly, they heard a deep "woof" as a large husky bounded up the lane towards his child.

"Well, what have we here, you good doggie you?" the Doctor crooned as Kyung-Chin squealed and dropped her toys in delight.

"Woofie!" the child scolded as she hugged her dog. "Silly wooffie- puppy been vewy Bad Woof, but Wooffie no leave me anymore- forever. I love you"


	5. Chapter 5: Jin Fang Dai Lang

Author's Note: Please forgive my bad Mandarin translations

**Author's Note: Please forgive a) the long wait between the last chapter and this one and b) my bad Mandarin translations. Thank you! :)**

* * *

Chapter 5: Jin Fang Dai Lang

"Bad Woof?" the Doctor murmured as he ran his hands through his dark brown hair. _It couldn't be- could it_?

_No_, he thought- _coincidence. Mere coincidence. Granted, coincidences were rare in the universe; most things passed off by humans and other "lower" but sentient species as "coincidence" were actually the convergence of timelines or "wibble-wobbles" in the temporal fabric caused by "future" events that, well, actually had already happened, weaving back and forth through threads of time. But, nevertheless, coincidence happens_ as he fumbled through his pockets. _And man, are they annoying- always messing with your head, getting you all excited for things yet to come and then BANG- nothing happens. _

_But I shouldn't be fearing anything. "Woofie"'s not exactly that strange of a name for a four-year-old orphan child to give her dog. No, and it wasn't "Bad Wolf," it couldn't be. It literally couldn't be. There was no way it was her, his savior, his-_

"Sweet love!" he cried as he glanced down at his pocket watch. _Oh god, that was weird sounding. Never should say that again-ever. But,_

"Where has all the time gone?" His eyebrows come together in worried anticipation. "Where is she? She should have been back hours ago. Ohh… Donna?!" the Doctor yelled. "Donna! Donna Noble!"

He ran to the end of the alleyway and stopped, frantically searching all around him. _Why did I let myself get distracted? Think, think, think, where could she have gone?_ He carefully scanned the side streets."That's it! I was off thinking- and then the dog!" _She came back and then I wasn't there and she came looking for me. God! Every single one of them!_ "Rule number one! What do I tell them?! Don't wander off, for crying out loud!" No sign of her down that street either._ But did they listen, no! Well, but then again, she did ask, and I did let her…_

"Excuse me sir," he called out as he ran up to a wizened old street vendor. "I'm looking for my friend. Human, 'bout oh, 180 centimeters or so tall, red hair, nice… smile…" the Doctor grimaced as he glanced at the man's blackened, broken grin. _Well, much nicer than that at least. And they think the NHS is shoddy. Talk about that for bad dental care. Yeesh._

The old man only smiled wider, giving the Doctor a caring, but quizzical gaze. He then cocked his head and began to speak in a rapid, slurred, completely incomprehensible manchonese dialect.

"What?" The doctor scratched his head. "What did you say?"

More slowly, and more distinctly, the man spoke again. "Daí láng hui laí!! Jĭn fang án wú tiän lí dáo!!

"What?" A sudden rush of apprehension and fear swept over the Time Lord. Then, with a sudden sweep of his trenchcoat, the Doctor turned on the spot, spotted the nearest alley, and ran.


End file.
